A Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen and Broken by David H. Burton

A YA series by Jessica Sorensen. A girl named Gemma has never been able to experience emotion until a new guy at school becomes a sort of catalyst that creates an influx of all these new feelings she's never had before. Gemma has also been recently been having these strange, intense nightmares where these strange creatures with yellow eyes haunt and kill her in the woods. Things that shouldn't be real are being to exist and appear in real life. The appearance of this new guy, Alex, at school as well as the frequency of her strange nightmares create a means that turn her world upside down and where her life will never be the same.

Without going into key points in the plot, the general mood of this book really reminds me of the House of Night series. Very much a sci-fi type plot, the first book in the series contains several twists and turns that I personally didn't guess until I actually read them. Gemma's character is the typical shy, introverted teen. Though because of her not being able to experience any emotions most of her life, she doesn't really have any friends and is considered an outcast at her school. I'm in the process of reading the second book in the series, The Underworld, which expands on Gemma's adventures and delves into more of her background. I really enjoyed this first book in the series but I find myself not as compelled while reading the second installment in the series. I'm already about halfway though the second one and I'm debating on whether I want to read the third as well as the fourth book in the series. I'd recommend this book to people who generally like sci-fi type novels. It's also a pretty quick read as well.
General rating for this book: B+

Three days before her twenty-fourth birthday, Katherine Gregory receives a letter from her deceased mother. It details a faery curse in which the eldest child in each generation will die in their twenty-fifth year. Katherine must decide if this is all real, or if the strange visions she's been having are just a figment of her imagination.

After I finished this book I pretty much fell in love with David Burton as a author. I downloaded the ebook version on my Nook Color which contains a excerpt for the next book in the series, Bitter, that's due to come out sometime during 2012. I'm still looking for a specific release date. I would describe Broken as a paranormal fantasy romance mystery. Katherine has 2  conflicting love interests - Jonathan and Chris. Though both men don't turn out to be at all what they seem. And the book goes into more detail on how each of these men play into the curse that's tainted Katherine's family for generations. Once the core of the plot unravels, it's actually hard to keep up with all the twists and turns. Or at least I thought so. I had to reread a few of the paragraphs to make sure I had everything correct. The end kind of plays out like a soap opera that reveals how everyone and everything is connected so I'd say for anyone that doesn't really like soap operas, this isn't the book for you. But I love soap operas, especially when they have a fantasy theme. I also love anything that includes the fey so this book was really right up my alley. I pretty much plan to read anything and everything David Burton has written. And I'll be the first in line when the next book in the series comes out. I heart you David Burton!

General rating for this book: A+